2 4 Wanderings in Eastern Africa, 
blacks.'^ In modern use, however, it is restricted to 
an island on the sixth degree of south latitude, 
separated from the African mainland by a channel of 
about the same breadth as the Straits of Dover, and 
to the city which has arisen on that island's eastern 
shores. Madagascar has been called the " Britain of 
East Africa ; " and Zanzibar may be designated, by 
no great stretch of similitude, its Isle of Wight. 
Our first impressions of Zanzibar were not particu- 
larly favourable. 
The island is not a large one. Its extreme length 
being about forty-eight, and its breadth about eighteen, 
miles. 
As you approach it from the sea the first thing 
that strikes you, and strikes you rather unpleasantly, 
is, that it is low and flat. A hazy, monotonous outline 
is first seen, just above the waters edge, which as you 
draw near rises gradually to the height of some 300 or 
400 feet in the highest parts, and develops into rounded 
hills covered with the brightest verdure. Tropical 
vegetation, in great luxuriance, adorns the shore, and 
many a pretty nook and lovely grove is presently 
disclosed. The cocoa-nut palm raises its feathery 
plumes in abundance along the greater portion of the 
shore, and adds considerable grace and beauty to the 
scene. The shore at the northern end of the island 
rises in bluff rocks from the water's edge, but as you 
proceed towards the city this gives place to a beach of 
white silvery sand, backed by rising mounds of lawn- 
like land, losing itself in the shadows and among the 
innumerable stems of the ever-present palm. Land- 
breezes come laden with the fragrance of cloves, and you 
become aware that the soft hills in the background are 
